The flag has seen a revival of interest due to local Maine vexillologists advocating for its re-adoption and businesses selling reproductions of it.

There has been a movement for Maine to readopt a version of this flag design since at least 1991, with an unsuccessful referendum on the issue having been held in November 2024.

[2] Although Maine had a semi-official militia flag from the 1820s to at least the 1860s,[3] an official design was first proposed at the time the State House was being enlarged.

[5] The flag, a simple combination of a buff ground bearing a Pine Tree in the center and a blue star in the canton, was the creation of Adjutant General John T. Richards.

In its 26 March 1901 edition, on page 5, The Kennebec Journal reported that “He did not word the description according to the terms used in heraldry because they might be blind to many who are not familiar with them, but the bill in simple comprehensive language set forth General Richards’ design.” The paper went on to explain “The design as adopted is preferable in many aspects to the State coat-of-arms ... Maine is everywhere known as ‘The Pine Tree State’ and what could be more appropriate than ... the tree should be one of the features of the flag?

The background of buff, the old colonial color, will harmonize perfectly with the green of the tree and the blue pole star and altogether will form a beautiful emblem most fitting in appearance and sentiment to be the standard of the old State of Maine.” The design was also used by the militia both as a military flag and as the design for the buttons of the new uniforms.

It is a small silk flag made about 1908 by the A. Kimball Co. of New York, likely for the Alaska Yukon Pacific Exposition, which was held in 1909.

A new law was later enacted on February 23, 1909, modeled on the first draft and supposedly after flags used in the Civil War, which revised the original: §206.

The supposed model flag in the Adjutant General's office is made of printed synthetic materials and is mounted on a pole shorter than nine feet and includes purple trees in the forest behind the white pine and moose.

By 1863, however, regiments were drawing their arms and equipment from the Federal Government rather than the State and those flags were blue with the U.S. Eagle on both sides.

In both 1991 and 1997, David B. Martucci of Washington, advocated for proposed legislation, brought forward by his representatives in the Maine Legislature, to revert to the 1901 flag, arguing that it was a simpler, more representative design of Maine as the "Pine Tree State" and was unlike any other current U.S. state flag.

[19] Some of these and other firms sell clothing, hats, stickers, patches, beverage coolers, and other items bearing the flag or its elements.

[21] After an initial wave of support, the bill died in committee due to a larger outcry over changing the flag.

On 6 June 2023, the Maine House of Representatives narrowly advanced a bill, proposing to change the state flag to the original 1901 version, by 66 to 64.